Sord tiem

Carried like a Princess across a snowy tundra, Lethe found herself at peace for a moment. She always wanted to be carried, but for reasons outside her grasp at this moment couldn't think why she never had. As they ran across the world, Lethe gave a sudden and blunt question in a tone that implied ignorance to it's deeper meanings and merely parroting something a girl like her probably shouldn't be reading.

"So what about sex?" so blithely blundered into without a care in the world. "A man and a woman traveling the world together implies sex, no? I'm not really good at it myself but can do it if you want to do it"

If not for his well-honed mind, Fuuen certainly might have tripped over himself at the question Lethe had just posed to him. The innocence in her voice made it difficult for him to feel particularly bothered by what he normally would have considered a remarkably crass question, but he still knew he ought to correct her on that before it got any further out of hand.

"I don't believe that traveling together automatically implies that, no. A man and a woman can certainly travel together in a completely platonic way. I've traveled with another female student of mine many a time without anything quite so untoward happening."

Of course, he knew that he'd done just as much traveling with another woman where that happened a good deal, but he wasn't bringing that up here. Explaining the intricacies of a romantic relationship as opposed to a simple teacher and student relationship wasn't quite what he was hoping to fill his day with.

Pondering the words for a few moments, she accepted them because Fuuen was very smart. No sex just for traveling together. Sex was probably a reward for doing good training or something. After all, anything just given out was inherently deminished in value.
"Sex is untowards? I heard it was quite nice once you get past the first time. Do you think it is untowards because you missed where you are meant to put it in or something? Or did you find a creep like those Kegare caters for?"

The curse of Lethe's innocuous and gentle questions continued for Fuuen. They had left the Demon World, and yet he was now in Hell.

Fuuen probably would have been appalled had he been dealing with anyone of a more firm mentality. As it stood, however, he could really only say that he felt faintly bad for the woman in his arms, primarily because these felt like questions that anyone ought to have heard the answers to at her apparent age.

"Sex in itself is not necessarily untoward. The idea of it being something so callously engaged in, however, is another matter. The relationship between teacher and student is not one that ought to be conflated with that sort of physical exchange."

Of course, he knew that there were certainly those pairs of teacher and student who took their relationship into the personal, and that was another matter entirely. It was also, he noted to himself, not a matter that needed to be brought into this particular conversation.

Lethe took the words to heart and truly ruminated on them, thinking for a long while until they had finally arrived at their destination and she got down. Much warmer climate, though that was hardly difficult given the literal artic conditions there were in before.

"So sex is it's own thing, not to be used as commodity or transaction" she eventually stated, nodding. She was not so oblivious as to ask why people transacted sex anyway, she understood that part of the world. There were a billion types and a trillion lives being led, after all.

"Then I must find some other way to do it! Like cute Paper Mache figures or hunting bears or something" Lethe commented, wondering how well kick-boxing would work when you were fighting a boar. "jeg har på meg Bersark, type deal, you know?"

"That is correct."

Fuuen, in truth, knew that he was at least somewhat imparting his own morals onto the woman, but that would have been the case no matter who was speaking to her. He doubted that his own relatively antiquated way of thinking would be too terribly problematic, regardless. It would certainly serve her better in the modern world than any ideas she might have picked up in Demon World, hm?

"I think I would be quite fascinated to see such paper mache figures, in truth. There is a beauty to papercraft, particularly given it is an art so few pursue."

He was aware that she had posited something a bit more violent to him, but he chose to simply follow the path of least resistance. That was the way of the breeze, after all, and Fuuen was hardly the sort to chase down a conflict.

"Will definitely learn the mache then" she stated, nodding vigerously. And then, stepping a few more feet in front of her and turning back to Fuuen, she'd exhale.

"So I don't want to seem like I am cutting and running, but you are a lovely person. You deserve more than what I am right now. I need to go and.....find some way to accept who I am. It's a scary possibility, but that's the future, right?" Lethe asked, giving a morose smile to Fuuen. Finding a way to become who she should be, rather than this creature half between both. That was a noble goal.

Hm. A strange thing to say, strange enough that Fuuen could not help but look a touch incredulous. The idea of simply leaving her to her own devices so soon, particularly after everything that she had said, did not exactly sit right with Fuuen. Then again, he had little moral argument to keep her around him, either.

"Do you believe so? Personally, I think it would be rather preferable if I were able to help you in that discovery. I did not come to find who I am by wandering alone, though I certainly have spent ample time doing just that. If you need assistance, I will almost assuredly be nearby. I go wherever the wind takes me."

It was something of a truth that he had found, in the life of a wanderer, that those who were destined to stay in one's life would always return. He could not explain how, or why. Call it some sort of celestial order, outside the explanation of even the spiritual cycle.

Scratching her head, she took off her hat and started playing with the rim as she searched for the words to explain it. Eventually, she just decided to bludgeon the words out.

"I like you" she exclaimed, with a nod. "And I want to keep it that way. And I don't know what will happen after I start doing Danava stuff, so I don't want you to see any potentially ugly stuff that comes from that" she'd tell him, folding up her hat and then unfolding it.

"Is it bad to only want someone to see the best side of you?"

"That is a good question. Personally, I do not think that it is a bad thing, no."

Of course, there was more to the matter than that. There always was, and Fuuen was quickly finding that to be especially true as he dealt with this woman. Not that he minded, of course. In truth, he rather liked to be able to think through things in this way. She had a worldview that few presented to him.

"However, I think it is just as important that we be willing to accept the bad side of those we are fond of. I would not expect that anyone I hold dear is perfect, nor would I think that they expect that of me, even if I do my utmost to present myself in such a way for them."